Men’s Volleyball
By Lindsey Besecker
Assistant Sports Editor
The Pepperdine men’s volleyball team moved up in the ranks to No. 4 this week after defeating No. 7 University of California, Santa Barbara and No. 6 California State University, Northridge last week. Next up, the Waves take on No. 10 University of California, Irvine and No. 3 UCLA, both in Firestone Fieldhouse.
“(UCLA and UC Irvine) played each other, and all four matches could have gone either way,” Head Coach Marv Dunphy said. “Irvine is very physical and they have good size and good experience. We know that is going to be a real tough match.”
The Anteaters have won their last two matches, defeating then-No. 8 Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne 3-0 and Rutgers-Newark 3-2 at the Long Beach State University Tournament. The Pepperdine-Irvine match at Firestone Fieldhouse begins at 7 p.m. and will be televised on College Sports Television.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” senior outside hitter Fred Winters said. “We match up well against them. Every match from here on out is important. I think we’re a little more excited because it’s on T.V. The athletics department has done a pretty good job of promoting it, so hopefully we’ll get a pretty good crowd.”
The Bruins have won seven of their last eight matches, with their only loss coming against No. 2 Long Beach. After they play Pepperdine, the Bruins will host No. 1 Brigham Young University for two matches.
Those two matches will be the third and fourth matches at home since the Waves hit the road and did not play at home for 28 days. Their first two home matches of that road trip – the UCSB and Northridge matches – proved to be successful for the Waves.
“I thought the emotion in the gym, the atmosphere in the Fieldhouse was conducive to good play by both teams,” Dunphy said. “It’s nice to play at home. But the bottom line is either were good enough or we’re not, no matter where we are.”
In the first match back at the Fieldhouse, Pepperdine swept UCSB in three games, 30-27, 30-19, 30-28.
“We played really well,” sophomore middle blocker Andy Hein said. “We normally do pretty well against Santa Barbara. JUst being back at home, it felt good to win a match in three games and start the homestand off right.”
Winters led the Waves with 18 kills and six digs, and junior outside hitter Sean Rooney had 11 kills, four aces and four digs. Hein also came up big on defense with 10 kills and four blocks.
Junior James Ka and freshman Tanner Sutherland switched positions in the match, allowing Ka, who normally plays libero, to stack up two kills, one ace and three digs at the outside hitter position.
“He’s a real good passer and a real good defensive hitter,” Dunphy said of Sutherland. “It’s not in stone but it’s something were looking at. But so far so good.”
The line-up change remained in tact for Saturday’s match against Northridge. After losing to the Matadors earlier this season, the Waves came out and won the match 3-1, with scored of 30-26, 23-30, 30-24, 30-25. Ka contributed six kills and eight digs, and Sutherland had 10 digs at libero.
“We did not play very well when we played at Northridge,” Dunphy said. “We just played better than we did there. We played hard, but not necessarily real well. We have to do that better against Irvine and UCLA.”
This time around, Rooney led the Waves with 18 kills, and Winters followed closely with 17 kills, but also added eight digs and three aces. Junior setter John Mayer had 55 set assists, nine digs and three blocks, and freshman outside hitter John Parfitt rounded out the top defenders with nine kills.
“They had beaten us earlier, so we wanted to prove that we were a better team,” Winters said. “They pick up more balls than us, but I think we proved that we could play defense also.”
Hein put in another solid performance with 13 kills and one ace, earning him the honor of being named the Molten MPSF (Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) Player of the Week.
“My mom called me and told me about it because I didn’t know at all,” Hein said. “I was surprised. I didn’t think I was going to get it at all. I’ll take it, it’s a really good honor for me.”
With only six matches left in regular season play, Pepperdine holds a 14-6 overall record and a 10-6 MPSF conference record. At home, the Waves have racked up an 8-1 record.
“We always love to play at home,” Winters said. “We’re used to playing here. We have four more home matches so obviously those are all ones we have to win and then take our chances on the road.”
Pepperdine will host University of Hawaii for its last two home matches before the MPSF tournament. Those matches will be important for the Waves because they will determine whether or not Pepperdine opens the MPSF tournament at home.
“They’re really big for us,” Hein said of Hawaii. “There’s three teams tied for fourth place in the conference — we’re one of them and Hawaii is another of them. It will give us momentum going into the conference playoffs. They’re a really good team, so if we cold beat them twice it would do wonders for our confidence.”
Then the MPSF tournament lies just around the corner for Pepperdine, but the team is not focused on that yet. It is still trying to finish out the regular season before it thinks about the MPSF tournament and even the even bigger NCAA tournament.
“We have six more regular season matches,” Dunphy said. “There’s some national championships up there. That’s our ongoing goal. We don’t sit around and talk about it. We spend time in the gym and take it one match at a time. We have some young freshman, and as they get better, we get better.”
Submitted April 1, 2004